Quotes By Author: Merle Shain

“Intimacy requires accommodation and gentleness at it’s core, and does with phrases like “If it bothers you I won’t do it,” and “Now I understand.” And “Thank you for telling me that. I hadn’t seen it in that light.” And “I appreciate you taking the time to get through my defences. I am sorry I put up such a fight.”You’d be surprised how much power there is in respect, and how much respect comes back, and how much intimacy there is when you empower someone instead of overpower them, and how much more love.”

“And they say that there is no intimacy unless there is mutual acceptance and mutual trust, no matter whatever else there is, and I would side with them.”

“But what is this psychic space, this common ground we seek to share, called intimacy – this place where you can exist in your own inner light and not be judged, this haven where your vulnerabilities don’t humiliate you, where sex is always warm and close and all your funny lines are understood, and there is always someone back to back with you when you take on the world?It’s a place where not only joy can be shared but hardship too, it’s an eye that catches yours across a room, it’s not having to look your best, it’s knowing someone else so well you can no longer tell where they begin and you leave off.”